Slacker Cam's FreeEMS Proto Hardware

[slacker.cam]

Hi,

Fred's mentioned me here and there on this board as his slacker mate so hence the thread title. Really I'm not all that slack, I just have too many projects on the go at once/have a short attention span for any one of them.

This post can be a bit've an introduction about me as well seeming I haven't posted on here before. I've been friends with Fred for quite a few years now and I'm a fellow MegaSquirter. So far I've been part of 3 successful MS installations. As many/all of you can, i see significant shortcomings with the MS platform these days for us true DIY/perfectionist types so I've been totally behind this project since Fred got bored enough to make a go of it. Although my time input to the project so far has been minimal (have only just arrived home from 2.5 months overseas and settling in to full-time work etc) my long term plan is to be a highly active member of the dev team, so much so (as you can see below) that i have already purchased the Tech Arts board and a JimStim. This was a bit more of a big deal when i actually ordered my bits as I don't think Fred had even got an LED to flash at that stage

I've just finished a professional engineering degree (Mechatronics major) and I've had quite a lot of experience with embedded software and automotive electronics design through my involvement with Formula SAE (http://www.fsae.co.nz, http://www.fsae.com) so I should be able to be at least a little help around these parts.

So this marks the beginning of my proto hardware thread, obligatory nerd-spec photo and all.

Cam

[Fred]

:-)

Thanks for getting around to this, it means a lot to me!

LOL @ the thread title :-) very good.

This was a bit more of a big deal when i actually ordered my bits as I don't think Fred had even got and LED to flash at that stage

This is true, it was somewhat impressive that both you and Sean decided to go ahead and order just based on what I said I was going to do. That meant a great deal to me at the time, many thanks for that. Most appreciated!

So this marks the beginning of my proto hardware thread, obligatory nerd-spec photo and all.

LOL @ that photo too! perfect :-)

Looking forward to having you participate more in some of the techy discussions that go on sporadically :-) I value your input!

Thanks again,

Admin. (Fred to you ;-) )

[slacker.cam]

Have to go out very shortly but here's a teaser for you guys until I have a chance to do a proper write up tomorrow (after I recover from the probable hangover ).



Cam

[Fred]

LOL, trust you to be "on the turps" :-)

Hey, I'm not sure if you read, but the regulator on the board is a 100mA max one and unsinked. You MUST do something about this as normal operation draws nearly 300mA with the PLL turned up to 40MHz. I have it running off an LM2940 and decent sink, and it still gets pretty hot (can still hold it, but just). I have a separate one for running all the LEDs etc, which gets a lot less warm.

I desoldered the reg from the card and bridged in and out turning the 2 pin header into a sensitive 5v input. Obviously, if you do this, don't plug 12v in...

How you want to set it up is up to you, but be aware of grounding and loops etc, as they have caused issues for me despite my fairly straight forward setup.

Fred.

[Fred]

Bump, who votes that we change his username to slackercam ??

[AbeFM]

I dunno, I'm such a slacker I haven't posted picks because I can't be bothered to post a whole new thread.

Also, waiting for my regulator to show up.

[slacker.cam]

Progress! After many months I have an update to post. Fred swung by for a bit tonight so I pulled all my gear out and did some soldering...

I have now ditched the vreg on the TA board and simply jumpered it - turning the unregulated input header into a strictly regulated 5V input (well it was Fred that did this part actually ). I also built a small 5V supply board with a LM7805 and some filtering caps. Everything works well - my improvised heatsink gets hot but not too hot too touch.

Pics:

[Fred]

Good work mate! Looking forward to sending test material your way soon :-)

[AbeFM]

I have now ditched the vreg on the TA board and simply jumpered it - turning the unregulated input header into a strictly regulated 5V input (well it was Fred that did this part actually ).

You have to watch out for Fred. He'll do that. At least I got a bottle of wine out of the deal.

It's looking good. If only I could find that TA card I swear I used to have laying around...

[Fred]

LOL, I'll chase up your card for you! If that doesn't come through I'll order a new one for you myself. Email sent!